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In school they vowed they’d have a forever friendship. Then life got in the way. As children, Emma Merrill and Sophia Mason promised to never lose touch, but their paths eventually diverged. Emma has struggled with depression. Sophie became an artist. Now, they’ve reconnected and Sophie invites Emma away to a small artists’ colony in south Texas, a beautiful landscape where wildflowers bloom. For Sophie and Emma, the artists’ colony in Texas is more than a safe place. It’s a second chance at friendship, love, and happiness. Read Hummingbird Lane by Carolyn Brown.
Hello again fellow romance lovers! I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to crush this coming week. I’m back with some of the latest in the romance world and I have big feelings about both so let’s jump right in.
Last week the RWA announced the finalists for their Vivian (previously known as the Rita) awards after much aplomb. And, while I do extend my heartfelt congratulations to all the finalists…well….I was underwhelmed. Now to be fair I didn’t expect to be overwhelmed, but I expected to be at least ‘whelmed’ (Score for the 10 Things I Hate About You reference).
I also expected to know more than two or three of the listed books. Don’t get me wrong; I was happy to see the few authors or books I knew on the list. But I feel that there should have been more BIPOC books on the list especially given everything that organization has gone through in the last year. Apparently I’m not the only one as the finalist list has caused a fair amount of grumblings on Romance Twitter.
In case you forgot some of last year’s shenanigans, here is a quick recap. They tried to cancel Courtney Milan for calling out a racist book. They canceled the then-Rita Awards last year after more stories of mistreatment by their BIPOC authors surfaced. After that, they tried to recover ground by renaming their awards “Vivian,” in honor of Vivian Stephens, a Black woman who was a founder but was never properly recognized in the origin story.
Those last two seemed like desperate attempts to recover the trust that they lost. But, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work that way since, for many, that finalist list just proves that nothing has changed. And in a world where we like our HEAs, that’s just sad.
In even more Bridgerton news, the latest buzz (see what I did there) was more speculation on why Rege-Jean Page will not be returning next season. It’s been rumored that, even though he was offered a large sum of money to guest star in a couple of episodes, he still declined. Some have taken this to mean that he wasn’t interested since he wasn’t the focal point of the story. Of course, as with all hearsay, take that with a grain of salt.
If this is true, though, then I get it. I went into the first season expecting to see only Daphne and Simon and ended up with a lot of background stories for other characters. If my memory does serve me, only one or two episodes focused solely on them for the full duration. Otherwise, they had to share their love story.
Personally, I could have done without all that extra for the other characters. I know that the idea was to plant the seeds for the later seasons, but I still could have done without.
Bluntly put, we got a lot of unnecessary fluff plot devices for other characters apart from Simon and Daphne. I went in wanting to see their love story; not the other brothers sowing their wild oats.
I will say that now that the expectation has been set, this trend better continue in all the other seasons. There was already enough of a division all around when they cast a Black man as Simon. It’s going to be a bad look if he is the only hero in the series that has to share his love story with the other characters. First season set up be damned.
For Your Further Reading Consideration
I know I’ve said sports aren’t my bag, but if you’re a fan of that sub-genre, check out some of these hockey romances.
Looking for some books to kick off spring? This list is a good place to start.
Also as a treat, here is an excerpt from the recently released Love in Color by Bolu Babalola.
New Releases and Deals
Here are some of the new releases headed our way this week.
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The Kindred Spirits Supper Club by Amy E. Reichert
Just One Night by Carly Phillips
Legion of Kings by Danielle James
Sugarlips by Katana Collins
Rescued by the Werewolf by Jules Monroe
There is an Honorable Mention this week and that is The Son of Mr. Suleman by Eric Jerome Dickey, who passed away in January. Most of his works are more romance adjacent, but he has always been one of my favorite authors and it was a sad day when he passed. So I wanted to call out that his final book will be released on the 20th.
As for deals, No Holds Barred by Stephanie Nicole Norris, She’s Got Soul by Aja, and Loving the Lieutenant by Elise Marion can all be snagged for $0.99 while The Lawrence Browne Affair can be yours for $1.99.
And that is all for today friends. If you want to catch up with me and maybe see snippets of what I’ve been reading, catch up with me @PScribe801 over on Twitter. See you on Thursday.